Disqus - Friends of mike868y

Re: Could bike sharing schemes kill helmet compulsion laws?

carltonreid — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:17:23 -0000

Two wrongs don't make a right, of course. We all need to get along.
But, then again, we're not driving ton-heavy weapons.

Re: About

kortina — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:25:02 -0000

Scot, you found the right person. I will give you a call this evening.

Re: How to setup an appointment

kortina — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:24:38 -0000

Employed already this in an email I sent to someone today: "Can we do a call
on Mon at 3pm or Tue at 10am or 3pm?"

Re: Could bike sharing schemes kill helmet compulsion laws?

carltonreid — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:13:10 -0000

Thanks. Consider it corrected!

Re: Could bike sharing schemes kill helmet compulsion laws?

carltonreid — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:02:22 -0000

Take a look at the video of Sue's helmet stance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLoPA_I6SL8

She's not a red light runner. She's a doctor's wife in rural Australia
and wanted to make a principled stand against a law she feels is daft.

Naturally, she got nowhere with the magistrate. Laws are laws! She
lost AU$2500 in the process, but says she will keep paying fines so
she doesn't have to wear a helmet.

I'm with her on this. Helmet compulsion is wrong. It should be a
personal choice. I choose to wear a bicycle helmet but I wouldn't want
to force that choice on others. Bike sharing schemes in Australia
could fail because of the helmet compulsion issue. And how stupid
would that be?

Re: Could bike sharing schemes kill helmet compulsion laws?

carltonreid — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:23:47 -0000

Thanks, Sue. Mike sent me the link to that video. And I remember your story from Mikael's blog, too.

Re: Could bike sharing schemes kill helmet compulsion laws?

carltonreid — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:12:26 -0000

But then why would Melbourne start in the first place?

Re: A Temporally and Spatially Aware Google

kortina — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:26:42 -0000

Yes, I am a bit behind in adoption here, but found the topic interesting
because this stuff finally clicked for me. I guess Google has been making
and effort to push the one box harder lately, or maybe it just took a long
time to educate me. Either way, personalized search is getting to be a hot
topic on my mind again right now.

Re: How to Do Proper Tabata Interval Training

kortina — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:04:26 -0000

Absolutely! Coming soon.

Re: A Liberal Arts Education Teaches Students to Analyze and Express Ideas Efficiently

kortina — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:55:06 -0000

I don't think I can place a $ amount on the value I got out of Penn. I met
Iqram there, and many other friends. I was surrounded by tons of smart
people and engaged in interesting debate daily. I now have an instant
connection with amazing alumni and meet new Penn alumns all the time. I
learned from inspiring teachers and peers.

In short, my answer is this: I intend to donate as much as I can to help
others have a similar experience and will not think twice about paying for
my own children to get a similar education. I will work 3 jobs if necessary
to expose them to this environment.

I realize not everyone shares this sentiment, however, so one of the items
on my startup-todolist is an education company, focused on making this sort
of experience more affordable. Prolly will be in five-ten years, though--my
plate is pretty full right now. Education is definitely an area I will
return to however. As a citizen of a democracy, I feel obligated to
contribute to improving education as an educated populace is the only way
for a true democratic society to sustain and improve itself.

Have you seen any sort of startups making this caliber of experience more
accessible? The closest thing I have seen is Youtube, but that does not have
the same sort of ubiquitous learning (learning at the cafeteria and gym)
sort of effects.

Re: A Liberal Arts Education Teaches Students to Analyze and Express Ideas Efficiently

kortina — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:26:08 -0000

"you are going to look first and foremost for someone with PHP, or Perl, or
mysql or whatever skills" - hmm, disagree here. Our first hire is going to
be a guy we went to school with who is just really smart. He has not written
software since graduating from college, but is sharp, a hard worker, and
knows how to get things done. Most importantly, he is a self starter, and
needs little direction to execute--he just needs to goal and can discover
the implementation independently.

I hear you on ROI, however, Andy. The value to me of the university
education is in the intangibles. When you go off to university, you leave
your comfort zone and family behind, and move geographically. Campus is a
place where excitement about learning lives. When you go to the dining hall
or gym, you're surrounding by people who are eager to learn and constantly
engaging in discussion with people who are learning new things outside your
domain. It's very tough to duplicate the motivation to learn that results
from living 24x7 in this kind of environment. Sure, you can join meetups and
forums and youtube channels focuses on learning a specific topic, but I have
yet to see the geographic network effects of a college campus duplicated
online.

The closest thing I have seen, actually, is New York City, where everyone
has a story. Everyone is excited about something, has some sort of telos.
Bartenders stories are about their theatre groups or art shows,
entrepreneurs abound, and generally people are excited about something,
looking for opportunities, ready to learn from the rest of the diverse
population. Building cities like this or figuring out how to translate this
environment to the web, I think, are the only way to compete with college
campus education.

Re: I Want To Be A Platform

kortina — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:07:31 -0000

Or was it an ipod that also had calling capabilities ;)

Re: Tabata Timer and Offline Embedded Exercise Video Demos in Workout of the Day 2.0 iPhone App

kortina — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:32:56 -0000

Yes, this is on the feature list for the next release, although I am
not sure when it will be released.

Re: is “frio frijoles” spanish for “cool beans” ? - kortina's tumblog

kortina — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:04:18 -0000

Hahaha, great, thank you for the correction.

Re: The Best (and Worst) Bicycle Saddles Ever

carltonreid — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:40:45 -0000

Whether on drops or flat bars, the Brooks saddle will conform to your
shape. Given time.

But if you're experiencing undue - and extreme - pressure from the get-
go, your saddle position is not correct. Perhaps the bike fit as a
whole is out of kilter. Google for all the bike fit articles out there
and see if you're sitting in the optimum position.

Extreme pressure on the perineum is not the goal, quite the opposite.

Re: Putting a new spin on learning to ride a bike

carltonreid — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:11:02 -0000

Yes, possibly. There's no way of testing this unless an adult version is made. The video certainly doesn't provide proof the system works because that little girl may actually be fighting the wheel.

Many, many kids will learn best on scoot along bikes - aka balance bikes - but perhaps older kids (kids who missed out on learning at the optimum age) may find the Gyrowheel of use.

However, in these cases I find it even easier to teach a kid to ride (or an adult). Make the bike into a balance bike by removing the pedals and lowering the saddle. Repeat same technique as for tots - ie lots of scooting and raising legs in air - and they're off and balancing within minutes. Replace pedals, raise saddle. Job done.

Re: New Amsterdam

carltonreid — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:19:11 -0000

Exactly! Boris needs to get concreting, paint ain't enough.

Re: ‘Black box’ video cameras should be fitted to all motor vehicles

carltonreid — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:20:31 -0000

I'd say both were at fault. The front car for turning over what
appears to be white solid lines; but also the camera car for going so
ruddy fast it didn't see the white car turning. There need not have
been a crash should the driver of the camera car have been paying full
attention.

Re: Qatar’s cooled bike path could lure Tour de France

carltonreid — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:12:11 -0000

I don't know. But I've emailed Adnan, the consultant guy who would know.

Re: Watch out, watch out, it’s the helmet debate

carltonreid — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:03:05 -0000

Thanks for your comment. I only hope the UK doesn't follow Australia's
example.

Re: Here is an Easy Way to Get on My Blacklist

kortina — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:41:03 -0000

His idea was actually not bad: he knew a lot of people who wanted to
get iphone apps built and he wanted to do it for them (only problem
was he didn't know how to). I suppose it was distasteful because he
just wanted to arb developers to his rich friends and skim off the
top.

Re: From dimples to compression: the do’s and don’ts of go-faster clothing

carltonreid — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:36:15 -0000

Very good point.

Similar thing for desert dwellers such as the Tuareg and other bedouin
people: they dress in long, flowing robes to stave off the extreme
heat. Trapped air acts as coolant.

Mind you, they use dark colours, blacks and blues not light ones,
which you'd think would be better at minimising solar load because
they're more reflective. Dark colours absorb the solar load: perhaps
the thickness of material helps?

Re: Running Barefoot First Thoughts

kortina — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:50:04 -0000

I would recommend trying these shoes out, Si. Running in them is a
great experience, and they're in general very comfortable.

Re: Ignoring pyc and other file patterns in Subversion

kortina — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 08:27:19 -0000

Done

Re: As Many Rounds As Possible in X Minutes (AMRAP) – Q & A

kortina — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:57:18 -0000

Tabata is a type of interval, defined as 20 secs work followed by 10 secs rest.